Research

I currently work in Paul Torrey's group at the University of Virgina (formerly at Florida).

What do I study?

I am a galaxy evolution theorist. I spend a lot of time in cosmological simulations.

Recently, I have been trying to understand the baryon cycle -- specifically by quantifying how changes in stellar feedback models of simulations impact galaxies as a whole. I've been trying to understand if there are obsverational diagnostics for the extent to which a galaxy's feedback is "bursty" or "gentle".

Download the full-resolution videos below!
This is an animation for a recent project I've been working on. It shows the Mannucci et al. (2010) parameterization of the fundamental metallicity relation (FMR) across cosmic time in the Illustris TNG-100 simulation. The left panel is the dispersion, or overall measure of scatter, about the relation on the right as a function of the free parameter alpha. The minimum scatter relation is what we refer to as the "global" version of the FMR. To learn more about the FMR check out my recent work: Paper I Paper II

Intersted in the videos?   TNG FMR Video Download (5.4 MB)   Illustris FMR Video Download (4.6 MB)   EAGLE FMR Video Download (3.7 MB)  

Interested in learning more?

• Poster from the Building Galaxies from Scratch conference I recently attended in Vienna, Austria
• Slides from a talk I gave at the "Resolving Galaxy Ecosystems Across All Scales" Conference in Hong Kong
• Slides from a talk I gave at Mark Vogelsberger's group meeting during my visit to MIT
• Slides from a talk I gave at Lisa Kewley's group meeting during my visit to the Center for Astrophysics in Boston
• Slides from a talk I gave at Sara Ellison's monthly group meetings (virtually)
• Slides from the UF Astro 2022 graduate research symposium, for which I was awarded the Million graduate student research symposium award for outstanding research presentation
• Slides and oral defense from my UF master's project, for which I was awarded the Million scholarship for excellence in astronomy and astrophysics for outstanding master's thesis

Selected Publications

NASA/ADS search

Research Summary:
3 completed first author papers (2 in progress) and 2 co-author works. 20 total citations

Teaching

*Primary instructor of course

**Undergraduate Grader

University of Florida Astronomy 1022 Lab Manual

Originally compiled in 1997 and sparsely been updated since, I translated the old version into LaTeX and implemented much needed content updates.

This manual is a required text for all students enrolled in the Astronomy 1022 lab course. To this day, students (and instructors) are still benefitting from the revisions that I implemented.

ALEX Labs

In addition to the lab manual, I implemented new computer lab software into the curriculum. These labs are inspired by the Contemporary Lab Experiences in Astronomy (CLEA) Labs created by Gettysburg College. CLEA labs ceased operations around 2016.

The labs that I have programmed are You Can Weigh Jupiter (based on the CLEA lab of the same name), Astronomical Spectroscopy II (based on "The Flow Of Energy Out Of The Sun" by CLEA), and Measuring the Hubble Constant (based on the CLEA lab of the same name).

Kika Silva Pla Planetarium

What did I do at the Planetarium?

The planetarium hosts weekly events on Fridays and Saturdays. The show topics range from educational to entertaining and all serve to get the public more interested in space and astronomy.

My favorite accomplishment during my time at the Planetarium was learning to perform "Florida Skies", an hour long show giving the public a tour of the night-time sky.

Show Credits

Florida Skies Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn - "Host", "Planetarium Staff"

Music 360: Gustav Holst's The Planets - "Production Crew"

Dynamic Earth - "Closed Captions for KSP"

Center for Academic Resources in Engineering (CARE) at UIUC

During undergrad, I tutored for the College of Engineering. I tutored a number of different courses ranging in disciplines. During my junior year, I was appointed to the leadership team.

My work as a tutor had a significant, positive impact on my fellow students. Three to four times a week for nearly 3 years, I would field many questions on a variety of different subjects (listed below). I was recognized during my last semester as being honored with Tutor of the Year Honorable Mention at the University level.

• 100 (Thinking About Physics)
• 211 (Introductory Mechanics)
• 212 (Introductory E&M)
• 213 (Introductory Thermodynamics)
• 214 (Introductory Quantum Mechanics)
• 225 (Relativity and Math Applications)

• 115 (Preparation for Calculus)
• 220/221 (Calculus I)
• 231/231E (Calculus II)
• 241 (Calculus III)
• 285 (Differential Equations)
• 415 (Linear Algebra)

• 101 (Introduction to Computing -- Python)

Exam Review Sessions

These events are office hours sytle: two hours in length where students can come and ask a small team of tutors any questions about their course in preparation for exams

During the summer before my senior year of undergrad, I aided in creating new worksheets for these sessions.

Data Analysis

I also looked at the traffic patterns of our walk-in tutoring center. I assembled monthly and semesterly reports and presented to our entire team.

Undergraduate Research

Professor Bryan Dunne

My work with Professor Dunne was focused on beginning research methods. Our group, made up of three undergraduate students, worked on an observation project on variable stars of the RR Lyrae variety.

One of the first modules had us get familiar with the photo-editing program Gimp. We chose a supernova at random, requested composite images, and stacked them together in Gimp. Below is the result.

We were beginning a literature review when my involvment with the project ended.

Professor Yue Shen

My (very brief) work with Professor Shen was centered on SDSS DR16 looking at quasars. My small part in this project was to translate an IDL script into Python. The script filtered out this noise and give a much neater spectral emission line.